Licensed Professional Counselor and Play Therapist

>> My name is April Miller. I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Play Therapist. Well, as a play therapist, I -- the first thing people think is, "Oh, so you work with kids." And I do work with kids. That's a big, important part of what I do. But I also use experiential methods to work with adults. So in addition to the traditional model of sitting in chairs and talking, we also are doing things. We might be doing art or we might be doing things with toys or we might we working with horses or different things. So we're actually doing things instead of just talking. Working with horses is pretty amazing. It's something I was just recently exposed to and had a chance to do. We work on the ground with horses. We're not riding. So we work on the ground, face to face with the horses most of the time. The horses are an amazing mirror because they are so sensitive to changes in your breathing or your facial expressions or your muscle tension. So it's a great way for clients to actually see their anxiety or their frustration mirrored back at them through the horse. And then to take them off and teach them some tools to deal with it and come back and see the difference in the way the horse relates to the client. Most of the time it just looks like back to back sessions. You know, starting my morning at the office and get there a few minutes early so I can kind of get myself centered and get my head prepared for the day. I have little kids, so there's the craziness of getting everybody dressed and off to school in the morning. So I like to get to the office a few minutes before my first client. Take a deep breath. Drink some coffee. And then I start seeing clients. I see them for 45 minutes sessions every hour. So I have a few minutes in between to write notes or to follow up with a phone call or check an email or whatever I need to do. Or just kind of decompress, depending on the issues that we've addressed during the session.